There has been a lot of talk tonight about a matching connector for the Viking II rear panel antenna changeover relay socket. The Ranger has a similar socket. In the case of the Viking II, one side of this socket is connected directly to one side of the line cord. If the external double fused plug has been removed and replaced with a standard 2 wire AC plug, there is no fuse between one side of the connector and the line. In the Ranger, the same situation exists. To prevent disaster, the first thing that users of these transmitters should to is remove the fused plug and replace the line cord with a properly wired 3 conductor line cord set. The antenna relay connector should be wired to the neutral side if the new line cord.
The original matching connector is a dangerous thing. It is all but impossible to get shrink tubing to stick to the pins and electrical tape around the whole connector will eventually dry up and come off. I have no connection with Glen, but his connector is a very safe way to access the antenna relay socket on both rigs. Many hams, myself included, either mount the antenna changeover relay on the rear of the Viking or on the receiver rear panel. Some others simply use a double male SO-239 connector. My point here is that the terminals on the relay coil need to be insulated, too. Back in the 50s when I built my Viking II, I remember trying to get tape to stick to the supplied plug, but I don't recall ever insulating the terminals on the relay coil. How I kept from being fried with this arrangement is a wonder to me. I guess being a fresh new ham, I never thought too much about it. All the cautions back in those days from my Elmer were to be wary of HV. I guess nobody gave line voltage a second thought and if they did, it was not talked about very much. Remember, it is not the voltage that kills, it's the current. An electrical current flowing through the body is looking to find a ground. When it does the body reacts by contracting muscle tissue. When this happens and you happen to be holding on to something, you can't let go. If nobody is there to stop the flow of current, ventricular fibrillation occurs when electrical signals from the brain to the heart are interrupted. The result is that the heart begins to beat in an irregular rhythm and is unable to pump blood properly. Unless the victim received proper and immediate first aid, death follows shortly. You have heard the phrase from old timers: "Keep one hand in your pocket while working around voltage sources." The idea here is to keep you from having current flow across your chest and through your heart. I am not a doctor, nor a medical practioner of any sort, but many first aid courses, electrical safety seminars and a few nasty bites have taught me to respect all sources of voltage be they LV, HV Line voltage or even batteries. "Switch to safety" and install 3 wire cord sets on all your boatanchors. Being able to probe around in much of the solid state gear has caused many to become complacent about shock. Don't let your guard down. 73 and stay safe, John, W4AWM ************************************** AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com. ______________________________________________________________ AMRadio mailing list List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Partner Website: http://www.amfone.net Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html Post: mailto:AMRadio@mailman.qth.net To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word unsubscribe in the message body.